Is Silfra ok for beginners?
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tracy_from_oz
Contributor
Iceland itself from my learning and planning of a trip there is quite expensive in itself.
There seems to be some great diving to be done there, but getting even short distances can take some times.
I have also noticed some great outdoor activities to do too, eg rafting, the geyers and national parks.
There seems to be some great diving to be done there, but getting even short distances can take some times.
I have also noticed some great outdoor activities to do too, eg rafting, the geyers and national parks.
chrisch
Contributor
Iceland supports whaling - it is no place for scuba divers. Please don't go there.
Chris
Chris
RiverRat:
I don´t know about the flights you can go to www.icelandair.com.
It depends how long you are going to stay in iceland, some of our great dive places are pretty far away, dayroute from each other. But as an example you can see Thingvellir and have a dive in Silfra on the same day and even something more. Thingvellir is only 50 km from Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. Summertime is the best time, like june, july or august even september can be great. Check out this homepage http://www.icetourist.is/ or this http://www.icefire.is/.
Hope this helps. :14:
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I found this picture on the SportDiver website:
I'm not big on cold water diving, but this looks like an AWESOME dive! I wonder how deep it is into the ravine itself? It also says there are strong currents and up to 300 small earthquakes on any given day in the national park itself.
I'm not big on cold water diving, but this looks like an AWESOME dive! I wonder how deep it is into the ravine itself? It also says there are strong currents and up to 300 small earthquakes on any given day in the national park itself.
Hi ST,
I had a little look on the net and I found this rather useful website
Also check out this pic!
Hope that helps :blinking:
DD
I had a little look on the net and I found this rather useful website
Also check out this pic!
Hope that helps :blinking:
DD
On 30th July, I dived in Silfra, it is not problem for beginners, if you aren't afraid of cold water, but dive centers help very readily to try with dry suit. For beginners, they can dive up to 10 meters (33 feet).
poleinahole
Registered
You can snorkel Silfra if you don't feel up to diving, although the dive guides are great and will tailor the diving to your level. If you are rusty with dry suit diving, they won't take you through the lovely caverns but will stick to open water.
I dove it in the depth of winter in December last year and it was fantastic! It's about 4C year around but they provide nice warm neaprene suits and heavy underwear. Bring polyproplene track suit or mountain climbing long u/wear to wear under this. (Not cotton or you will sweat before you get into the water and then get very cold. You have to hike about 15 bminutes over snowy (in winter) rocks and little hills to get into the Silfra crack with all your weights and tank--though they will help you if you need a hand.)
You've got to love a country where diving and snorkeling features in the little booklet of Greyline tours you can do around the island, so it's easy to sign up. But for best results, e-mail them a few days in advance and let them know your height, weight, shoe size and level of cold water experience and the hotel you will be staying at so they can have everything ready for you.
Tobias Klose of www.dive.is took me diving (one 25 minute dive a day) and then touring the rest of the day. It's a long way from Silfra to the capital and there are geysers and scenery to see en route. Expensive but well worth it.
I've now dived in 57 countries and this ranks as one of my top ten dives ever. 100 M plus viz and lovely light playing on the water through caverns. Icelanders like to party and the local dive club came dressed in santa claus gear, complete with beards over their dry suits for their Christmas dive. They decorated a Christmas tree and brought that down as well as Icelandic Christmas music they piped down through speakers. We all finned around the tree. A guy was filming and when I switched on the TV that night we were all on Icelandic TV! Magic.
I dove it in the depth of winter in December last year and it was fantastic! It's about 4C year around but they provide nice warm neaprene suits and heavy underwear. Bring polyproplene track suit or mountain climbing long u/wear to wear under this. (Not cotton or you will sweat before you get into the water and then get very cold. You have to hike about 15 bminutes over snowy (in winter) rocks and little hills to get into the Silfra crack with all your weights and tank--though they will help you if you need a hand.)
You've got to love a country where diving and snorkeling features in the little booklet of Greyline tours you can do around the island, so it's easy to sign up. But for best results, e-mail them a few days in advance and let them know your height, weight, shoe size and level of cold water experience and the hotel you will be staying at so they can have everything ready for you.
Tobias Klose of www.dive.is took me diving (one 25 minute dive a day) and then touring the rest of the day. It's a long way from Silfra to the capital and there are geysers and scenery to see en route. Expensive but well worth it.
I've now dived in 57 countries and this ranks as one of my top ten dives ever. 100 M plus viz and lovely light playing on the water through caverns. Icelanders like to party and the local dive club came dressed in santa claus gear, complete with beards over their dry suits for their Christmas dive. They decorated a Christmas tree and brought that down as well as Icelandic Christmas music they piped down through speakers. We all finned around the tree. A guy was filming and when I switched on the TV that night we were all on Icelandic TV! Magic.
I find that diving is better than snorkel, because you see better in depth of 10 meters (33 feet).poleinahole:
I met Tobias and I dived in Silfra and Strýtan. In Silfra, we can dive two times 35 minutes. Silfra is not far from Reykjavik, about 50 km.poleinahole:
Realize that the last posting was a while back, but I thought I would add for anyone who might do a search on Iceland.
I dove Silfra in June 2005. It's not a difficult dive assuming you know how to use a drysuit. The water was 3C on both dives. You enter through the cave/cathedral area. I only hit 16m on the first dive and 13m on the second. We did go from the cathedral section into the lagoon. You have to come up to a fairly shallow part and then redescend into the lagoon (not deep). Thus, you want to be able to control the buoyancy in your drysuit.
It is one of those dives that stands out as one of the all time best dives. The viz was endless. When you come up at the end of your dive, you can literally drink the water which is probably the purest you will ever dive in!
I did a week-long dive trip around Iceland. There were only 4 other dives aside from the two Silfra dives (to start and to end the trip). The sea diving conditions are similar to those in the UK. There is not real diving infrastructure so you dive from fishing boats with no proper dive ladders, etc. Glad no one was filming my graceless re-entry up the extendable ladder lashed to the side of the boat!
However, we did see lost of the country. We got to snorkel with icebergs and the seals came in to play.
If anyone wants any more details on diving in Iceland, send me a private message/post a response and i will be happy to respond.
I dove Silfra in June 2005. It's not a difficult dive assuming you know how to use a drysuit. The water was 3C on both dives. You enter through the cave/cathedral area. I only hit 16m on the first dive and 13m on the second. We did go from the cathedral section into the lagoon. You have to come up to a fairly shallow part and then redescend into the lagoon (not deep). Thus, you want to be able to control the buoyancy in your drysuit.
It is one of those dives that stands out as one of the all time best dives. The viz was endless. When you come up at the end of your dive, you can literally drink the water which is probably the purest you will ever dive in!
I did a week-long dive trip around Iceland. There were only 4 other dives aside from the two Silfra dives (to start and to end the trip). The sea diving conditions are similar to those in the UK. There is not real diving infrastructure so you dive from fishing boats with no proper dive ladders, etc. Glad no one was filming my graceless re-entry up the extendable ladder lashed to the side of the boat!
However, we did see lost of the country. We got to snorkel with icebergs and the seals came in to play.
If anyone wants any more details on diving in Iceland, send me a private message/post a response and i will be happy to respond.
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